Carey Price injury: Canadiens lose ‘best player’ for remainder of Conference Final
Carey Price is out for the remainder of the Eastern Conference Final, a major blow to Montreal’s chances at beating the New York Rangers.
Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Carey Price is the Canadiens best player, and unless they make it to the Stanley Cup Final, he'll miss the remainder of the season.
And there's the problem for Montreal: Their chances of making it to the Cup Final are severely decreased without Carey Price in the lineup. Head coach Michel Therrien announced on Monday before Game 2 that Price will miss the rest of the series thanks to a knee injury he suffered in a collision with Rangers forward Chris Kreider in Game 1.
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Price has been a rock for the Habs all year long, and he’s been by far their best player throughout both the regular season and the playoffs — something Therrien admitted in those exact words when speaking Monday morning. He won a gold medal in Sochi with Team Canada, and he’s arguably having the best NHL season of his career.
The Habs are clearly angry about this turn of events, with Therrien not mincing words in placing blame.
”Carey Price won’t be able to play tonight. Not only for tonight, but for the rest of that series. Really disappointed. He’s our best player. Looking at the incident, you know, it’s a reckless play. That’s the truth.
And Kreider, this is not the first time he’s going at goalies, so end up losing your best player. But our group faced a lot of adversity through the course of the season, and we respond and we’ve got the attitude to respond really well, and this is what I’m expecting starting tonight.”
Objectively, though, it’s hard to make the assumption that Kreider was being reckless. He cut in on goal, lost his footing, and barreled into the goalie — something that happens often in the NHL, especially with speedy, go-to-the-net players like Kreider.
If there’s any good news for Montreal, it’s that the Rangers haven’t proven the ability to win a hockey game when they have a series lead — in fact, they haven’t won a single game while holding a series lead in their last 13 attempts.
That said, they're a deep team that's clicking under Alain Vigneault, and Henrik Lundqvist is playing out of his mind. It doesn't look good for the Canadiens.
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